144 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



it every chance of growing horizontally." Further instruc- 

 tions are given for making oak grow crooked, the author 

 stating that ten crooked oaks are wanted for every straight 

 one. As regards ash, beech, and chestnut, pruning should 

 be done by the time the trees are 15 to 20 feet high, because 

 when done when the trees are arrived at an advanced age, 

 it not only has a tendency to injure them, but also leaves 

 blemishes in them. The object with these species should be 

 the production of straight stems. In plantations which have 

 not been timely thinned pruning is advanced in conjunction 

 with light thinning, and more especially are the tops of those 

 intended to remain to be lightened to prevent top-heaviness. 



" No species of Fir Tree whatever," says Monteath, " should 

 be pruned, because in pruning they bleed so much that it 

 very materially injures the growth of the Tree." 



In a general way Monteath's views on pruning seem 

 sound enough so far as they go, and, considering the times in 

 which he lived, but too much prominence is given to the 

 training of trees by pruning rather than close order. The 

 great expense of frequent pruning operations and the diffi- 

 culty of supervision on a large scale are ignored, and arbori- 

 culture rather than sylviculture is evidently in the author's 

 mind. 



In 1805 William Pontey, who styled himself "Planter 

 and Forest Pruner to the Late and Present Duke of Bedford," 

 published The Forest Pruner. Pontey moralises a good deal 

 on the erroneous ideas which had hitherto prevailed on the 

 subject. Lawson and Evelyn are severely dealt with, but 

 the bulk of his sarcasm is reserved for Mr. Forsyth, the 

 royal gardener, who obtained a parliamentary grant for 

 applying a plaster of cow-dung and other ingredients to some 

 old elms in Kensington, and who advertised this composition 

 as a remedy for all wounds and sickly trees generally. 

 Nichol, the author of The Practical Planter, is next disposed 

 of, and then Pontey proceeds to state his own case, which, 

 briefly described, is the more or less universal pruning of all 

 conifers, not merely of dead but also of living branches, up to 

 a certain distance from the leading shoot. Pontey's chief 

 aim was to get rid of dead knots, but he omits to mention the 

 chief objection to artificial pruning, namely, its expense when 



